Beaune bus accident

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The Beaune bus accident was the most fatally fatal traffic accident in road traffic history in France . It occurred on the night of 30th to 31st July 1982 on the A 6 motorway near the town of Merceuil near Beaune in the Côte-d'Or department in Burgundy . In the accident, in which two coaches and several cars were involved, 53 people were killed, including 44 children between the ages of 6 and 15 who were on their way to a holiday colony in Savoy . As a result of the accident, several new road safety regulations were introduced in France, including general speed limits in rainy weather and a ban on bus transport for groups of children during periods of particularly heavy traffic.

the accident

On Friday evening, July 30, 1982, around 8 p.m., two coaches from Crépy-en-Valois in the Oise department north-east of Paris with 107 children from the community and its surroundings had set off; The destination of the trip was a holiday camp in Aussois in the Savoy Alps .

At around 1:45 a.m. on July 31, 1982, the two buses drove one behind the other on the A 6 motorway in a southerly direction with a wet lane and dense but fluid traffic than at motorway kilometer 313, where the directional lane narrowed from three to two lanes , the traffic suddenly stalled. When braking, several passenger cars cut right between the two buses. The first of the two coaches initially came to a standstill without incident, but the second collided with the car in front of it, which slipped into its lane. Despite the moderate speed during the collision, the car's tank was torn open; the gasoline spread among the vehicles and ignited. Both buses and four passenger cars caught fire.

Victim

In the bus in front, the driver and accompanying supervisors managed to escort the children outside. In the second bus, however, the way out through the front side door was blocked by a car wedged into the vehicle. Two carers, who suffered severe burns themselves, managed to evacuate 15 children through the rear of the bus.

The rest of the people on the bus were killed in the flames. There were 44 children between the ages of 6 and 15 from 19 families, as well as two drivers and two other carers. Another 5 people, including two small children, died in the cars involved in the accident. The total death toll was 53, including 46 children. No other road traffic accident in France has cost so many lives to date. The victims on the bus were burned beyond recognition and could not be individually identified.

Legal processing

On January 10, 1985, a court in Senlis (Oise) awarded the victims' families a total of 12 million francs in damages .

In the criminal proceedings in Dijon in June 1985, the owner of the bus company based in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne was sentenced to a prison term of 12 months on probation and a fine of 25,000 francs for various misconduct in the maintenance of the vehicles and the selection of the drivers of his small company . The 50-year-old bus driver Antoine A. was a full-time worker on shift work at the metallurgy group Pechiney and was behind the wheel for the transport company on weekends and during his vacation time. A. was sentenced to 6 months 'imprisonment on probation, a fine of 2300 francs and 12 months' driving license, 8 months of which on probation. On March 7, 1986, the Dijon Court of Appeal upheld the judgments.

consequences

Mémorial pour l'Avenir

Following and in response to the accident, several measures were taken in France to increase road safety, particularly on motorways. These include reducing the maximum permissible speed in the rain to 110 km / h on motorways and 80 km / h on country roads as well as limiting the travel time without a break for bus drivers to four and a half hours. Since then, the bus transport of children has been banned on the days with the highest travel activity of the year. At the site of the accident, the motorway was widened to three continuous lanes in each direction of travel.

In 1985, a memorial, the Mémorial pour l'Avenir (memorial for the future) , was erected on the Aire du Curney motorway service area near the site of the accident . A memorial event has been held there every year since then.

Web links

Commons : Beaune bus accident  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Difficult days . In: Der Spiegel . No.  32 , 1982, pp. 112-113 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Muurvaste busdeur sloot kinderen op in vuurzee . In: Leidse Courant . August 2, 1982, p.  6 (in Dutch, digitized from suffering.courant.nu ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Accident de car: en 1982, 53 morts près de Beaune. In: europe1.fr . October 23, 2015, accessed November 18, 2019 (French).
  4. ↑ a b Faïza Zerouala: L'impossible deuil de l'accident de Beaune, 30 ans après. In: lemonde.fr . July 30, 2012, accessed November 18, 2019 (French).
  5. ↑ Olivier Bonnel: "Les two cars ont pris feu ... après, c'était des cris partout" . In: Le Parisien . August 27, 2001, p. 5 (French).
  6. ↑ a b c Sophie Allemand: Il ya 37 ans, l'accident de car de Beaune: qu'est-ce qui a changé sur nos routes depuis? In: francebleu.fr . July 31, 2019, accessed November 18, 2019 (French).
  7. ^ Robin Assous: Le souvenir des victimes de Beaune toujours présent . In: Le Parisien . August 1, 2003, p. 4 (French).
  8. ↑ Le noir souvenir de l'accident de Beaune . In: Sud Ouest (newspaper) . August 1, 1997, p.  4 (French).
  9. ^ A b L'accident de Beaune en appel . In: Sud Ouest (newspaper) . January 22, 1986, p.  5 (French).
  10. ↑ a b Beaune: il ya 31 ans, un accident de car faisait 53 morts sur l'autoroute A6. In: francetvinfo.fr . July 29, 2013, accessed on November 18, 2019 (French, broadcast by the regional broadcaster France 3 Bourgogne – Franche-Comté ).
  11. ^ Solenn de Royer: L'accident de Beaune, "comme si c'était here" . In: La Croix (Paris) . July 31, 2002, p. 6 (French).

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 ′ 53 "  N , 4 ° 49 ′ 48"  E